Val Achtemeier (left); Darla Longo (top right) and Barbar Perrier.
Val Achtemeier, Darla Longo and Barbara Perrier
Vice chair; vice chair and managing director; and vice chair at CBRE
The Los Angeles industrial market wasn’t exactly welcoming to ambitious young women three decades ago when Val Achtemeier, Darla Longo and Barbara Perrier were starting out at CBRE’s progenitor, Coldwell Banker.
Longo was the first to join the firm in 1979, and managed to persuade her sister, Perrier, to take a job working alongside her a decade later. They went on to launch the CBRE Women’s Network, a mentorship community for women at the brokerage that is now more than 20 years old.
And when Achtemeier departed Majestic Realty for CBRE in 2009 — bringing with her an extensive network of contacts in investment banking and CMBS lending — the trio was well on its way into the L.A. capital markets stratosphere.
In the past year, Achtemeier, Longo and Perrier have pivoted their debt and equity strategy to focus more on construction financing. Development loans now comprise about half their business, Achtemeier said. And that might be why debt deals began to pick up for the trio midway through 2024, to reach a total volume of $2.6 billion year-to-date and $3.1 billion over the past 12 months.
On the investment sales side, Longo and Perrier closed 38 deals totaling $2.5 billion year-to-date, bringing total sales volume over the past 12 months to $3.4 billion.
Those figures actually make 2023 a bit of a bust, believe it or not. By contrast, at the peak of the recent logistics boom in the Inland Empire, the sisters were handling about triple that transaction volume.
“Most of the deals we got done last year were smaller deals, but 2024 is coming on strong,” Perrier said. “People are really looking for reasons to do deals. We’re in this mode of more capital entering the market, more people looking to do deals, and it’s just a better environment.”
A turnaround for the West Coast industrial market will be even likelier if interest rates start to ease up in earnest, according to Achtemeier.
“Lately we’ve seen spreads come down, at least for industrial,” Achtemeier said, adding the drop is cause for optimism, at least compared to the less bullish office sector. “On industrial, we’re seeing really robust liquidity again, driven by spreads and interest rates going down. That’s starting to help the debt market.”
